1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for making carbon nanotube film.
2. Discussion of Related Art
Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are a novel carbonaceous material and have received a great deal of interest since the early 1990s. Carbon nanotubes have interesting and potentially useful electrical and mechanical properties. Due to these and other properties, CNTs have become an important new material for use in a variety of fields. However, the acquired CNTs are generally in a form of particles or powder and that is inconvenient for applications. So it is necessary to make carbon nanotube film.
Nowadays, methods for making carbon nanotube film include, using chemical vapor deposition (CVD) to grow a carbon nanotube film by dissolving carbon nanotube powder into a solvent to form a solution, coating the solution onto a surface of a substrate, and drying the solution thereon to form a carbon nanotube film. There is also the Langmuir Blodgett (LB) method, which involves mixing the carbon nanotube solution with another solution having a different density, causing the carbon nanotubes to float on the surface of the solution to form a carbon nanotube film. The carbon nanotube film acquired by the LB method is a uniform net structure and the carbon nanotubes in the carbon nanotube film are dispersed uniformly and without agglomeration. But the carbon nanotubes in the carbon nanotube film are disordered and not conducive to exploitation.
What's more, the aforementioned methods for making carbon nanotube film are limited to laboratory use, and so are not suitable for use in a mass production setting.
What is needed, therefore, is an apparatus and a method for making the carbon nanotube film, the apparatus being easy to manipulate, and the method being conducive to mass production, and the carbon nanotubes in the carbon nanotube film are dispersed uniformly and arranged in a preferred orientation.